Reunion Gold outlines Guyana exploration plan
Reunion Gold Corp. [RGD-TSXV] on Friday released details of a planned exploration program at its Oko West project in Guyana. The company said the program will include a combination of approximately 130 diamond and reverse circulation holes, covering 11,000 metres.
The announcement comes after Reunion recently raised $10.5 million from separate private placements that it will use to fund exploration work at Oko West and for other general working capital purposes.
Reunion shares advanced on the news, rising 7.1% or $0.005 at $0.075 on volume of 266,000. The shares trade in a 52-week range of 14 cents and $0.05.
Reunion Gold is a leading gold explorer with a portfolio of projects in the Guiana Shield in South America. Two years ago, the company formed a strategic alliance with Barrick Gold Corp. [ABX-TSX, NYSE] to explore, develop and mine mineral properties in the Guiana Shield.
Under the deal, the two companies pledged to form a 50:50 alliance that will cover certain mineral projects in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and the north and northeast regions of Brazil. Barrick committed to increase its stake in Reunion to 19.9% from 15%.
The Oko West project is in the Cuyuni Mining District, about 95 kilometres west of Georgetown and is accessible by roads and trails from the town of Bartica or by boat using the Cuyuni River.
The project covers 11,900 acres of mineral rights held by local Guyanese entrepreneurs. Reunion entered into agreements entitling it to conduct exploration activities and acquire a 100% in the project area.
Trenching and drilling programs conducted by Reunion confirmed gold mineralization in shear zones coinciding with gold-in-soil anomalies and geological structures identified from airborne geophysical surveys.
The maiden 1,000-metre diamond drilling program completed in January, 2021 also confirmed the downward extension of mineralized zones discovered through the weathered profile (saprolite).
“We are excited with the exploration results obtained so far from trenching and drilling work at the Oko West project,” said Carlos Bertoni, Reunion’s acting CEO.
“This new program aims to define the geometry, volume and gold grade of saprolitic material over a strike length of approximately three kilometres and will be executed in such a way that a mineral resource could be estimated, if warranted,” he said.
In addition to the 11,000 metres in 130 holes of drilling, 25 trenches are planned to provide a continuous near-surface sampling of saprolite. The company expects that more than 12,000 samples will be assayed. The program is being launched during the first week of June and will take close to five months to complete at an estimated cost of $3.4 million.
The Oko West area is in the Cuyuni River basin of Guyana, a traditional mining-friendly jurisdiction.